US plots to kill idea of global digital privacy at the UN - report

The United States is silently watering down the text of an anti-spying UN resolution introduced by Germany and Brazil in order to ensure any extra-territorial violation of online privacy remains legal, according to a document obtained by The Cable.

According to a government document obtained by the publication, the US has
circulated a confidential communique entitled "Right to Privacy
in the Digital Age - U.S. Redlines."

In it, Washington highlights the US objectives in negotiations
currently underway at the United Nations and calls for changing
the Brazilian and German text so "that references to privacy
rights are referring explicitly to States' obligations under
ICCPR and remove suggestion that such obligations apply
extraterritorially.”

Washington is also calling for its allies to support amendments
that would weaken a UN draft resolution by Brazil and Germany
aimed at constraining internet surveillance by the National
Security Agency and other intelligence agencies.

The United States claims that it wants to limit the focus to
illegal surveillance.

"Recall that the USG's [U.S. government's] collection
activities that have been disclosed are lawful collections done
in a manner protective of privacy rights," the document
states. "So a paragraph expressing concern about illegal
surveillance is one with which we would agree."

Diplomatic sources have also told The Cable that Washington is
worried that extraterritorial human rights could hinder the US
effort to pursue international terrorists.

There is no extraterritorial obligation on states "to comply
with human rights," one diplomatic source told The Cable.
"The obligation is on states to uphold the human rights of
citizens within their territory and areas of their
jurisdictions."

Germany and Brazil submitted a draft resolution to the UN General
Assembly earlier in November.

The text calls for an end to excessive electronic surveillance,
data collection, and other snooping techniques, in response to
recent revelations of US mass surveillance programs.

The text of the resolution asks the world community to declare
that it is "deeply concerned at human rights violations and
abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of
communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of
communications.”

The circulated draft, that is being discussed in the UN’s third
Committee, urges member states "to take measures to put an end
to violations of these rights and to create the conditions to
prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant
national legislation complies with their obligations under
international human rights law.”

The Brazilian and German proposal seeks to apply the right to
privacy to online communications under the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

It acknowledges that while public safety may "justify the
gathering and protection of certain sensitive information,"
nations "must ensure full compliance" with international
human rights laws. The resolution is expected to be adopted next
week at the UN.

In public, the US claims to affirm privacy rights. "The United
States takes very seriously our international legal obligations,
including those under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights," Kurtis Cooper, a spokesman for the US
mission to the UN, said in an email to the Cable. "We have
been actively and constructively negotiating to ensure that the
resolution promotes human rights and is consistent with those
obligations."

Yet behind the scenes, The Cable alleges US diplomatic efforts
are aimed at killing "extraterritorial surveillance"
provision of the Brazilian and German draft. The publication
claims that American negotiators have been pressing their case
behind the scenes through their allies.

According to one diplomat, "the United States has been very
much in the backseat," leaving it to its allies, Australia,
Britain, and Canada, The Cable writes.
"They want to be able to say ‘we haven't broken the law, we're
not breaking the law, and we won't break the law,'" Dinah
PoKempner, the general counsel for Human Rights Watch told the
publication. She says the US wants to maintain its ability "to
scoop up anything it wants through the massive surveillance of
foreigners because we have no legal obligations."